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from Lynn Baber, Artistic Administrator

I really think that theatre has a lot of magic in it.   I’m really lucky to have a job where there is a little bit of magic in every day.  This week’s magic looked like this~

Five minutes before The Marvelous Wonderettes closed:

Two hours after The Marvelous Wonderettes closed:

Twelve hours after it closed the stage looked like this:

And 36 hours after it closed it looks like this:

Not only does that seem magical to me, it seems kind of impossible.  We do the impossible and the magical all the time around here.  It’s our job.  I can’t wait to see what Northlight looks like tomorrow.

from Lynn Baber, Artistic Administrator

OK, it’s ridiculous (in a really good way) around here.

The extension week of THE MARVELOUS WONDERETTES is going ridiculously well.  The cast was on WGN last week, so the remaining tickets are being sold very quickly.  (There’s still time! You have 7 more chances to see it!)   We had a student matinee yesterday to a full and incredibly responsive house of young people  - theatre classes from Loyola Academy and Libertyville High School, and ALL of the students from Springman Middle School.   This production has been a big hit with our audience and we are a little sad to see it close.

Yesterday we also had our first rehearsal of the ridiculously funny and touching SOUVENIR.   The two actors came to the first reading having already done fabulous character work on their own.   You know you’re on the right track when the people in the room (like me, BJ and the interns) are gasping with laughter at the first read-through.

BJ Jones and Randy Myler, director and co-creator of Low Down Dirty Blues

Before that, BJ and I just got back from a ridiculously fun and exciting trip to New York.  We flew in to see the first draft of LOW DOWN DIRTY BLUES in rehearsal and a concert performance.  Northlight favorite, Mississippi Charles Bevel, predictably brings down the house with a kind of blues singing that comes straight out of his soul.  The other musicians, all hotshots, were equally compelling and talented.  This show is going to blow the roof off.  (Other highlights of the trip included shopping for purses on Canal Street and finding the best gelato in New York.)

And the production of THE LADY WITH ALL THE ANSWERS that BJ directed at Cherry Lane Theatre in New York, starring Judith Ivey, is just as wonderful as it was when we produced it at Northlight.   Judy is ridiculously amazing in her spot-on portrayal of Chicago’s Ann Landers.  The reviews are fantastic, and we are so proud of BJ for having directed this off-Broadway hit.

Really, I could go on and on. But I have work to do.  There are understudies to cast, readings to produce, details to finalize, etc.  It’s just a ridiculously fabulous fall at Northlight.  You don’t want to miss a thing.  See you at the theatre - soon!

from Lynn Baber, Artistic Administrator

I had no idea.

One of my jobs at Northlight is to cast the understudies.  I also cast the shows, but I do that in collaboration with the directors, and since we work so closely on doing it together, it doesn’t really feel like I can take credit for it.  But understudy casting is largely my own.

In the past few years we have definitely put understudies on.  Scott Westerman went on in Michael Shannon’s role in Lady (a 3-character play) with only twelve hours’ notice.  Tim Gittings went on in the title role of The Miser several times.  The understudy for the role of Joe Kennedy/Jerry in Grey Gardens did the last five  performances.  So, I try to really know what’s going on with the understudies.

I was surprised over the weekend to learn that the understudies for The Marvelous Wonderettes are actually doing the show in the green room while the show is going on onstage!  Both Maris Hudson and Mary Candler are covering three of the Wonderettes’ roles.  We did it that way in the event that if any two of the actresses are ever sick at the same time, they will both be covered.

Here’s what I saw in the green room (actors’ lounge area) during the matinee last week:  there’s a monitor that is showing what is happening onstage and both Maris and Mary are up on their feet, facing it as the second act begins.

Maris:  “Are you doing Missy or Betty Jean now?”
Mary:  “I’m Missy until Suzy comes on, and then I’ll be Suzy”
Maris:  “OK.  I’m Betty Jean now.  Tonight I’ll be Missy.”
Mary:  “OK.  Tonight I’ll be Cindy Lou.”

Mary Candler (L) and Maris Hudson (R) wait in position, ready to "perform" Act II.

And then they actually sing and dance one of their roles while watching it on the monitor.  Who knew?

I simply can’t imagine how difficult is for each of these two young women to learn not one,  but three of these roles.  There’s different choreography for each character, and complex part-singing!  Maris knows the highest vocal part and the lowest.  Mary says there’s one song in one track where she just has to come in and get her note out of the clear blue sky.  They frequently mention how they have NO IDEA how they can keep all this in their heads.  I am in full agreement ~ and full of admiration for the depth of skill that they have brought to this monumental task!  I knew it was an important and difficult task.

But, really, I had no idea.

Maris and Mary on Opening Night

from Lynn Baber, Artistic Administrator

It has been a flurry of casting recently!

We cast The Marvelous Wonderettes as soon as we secured the rights to it back in April.  But in the past three weeks, I have scheduled ten or more auditions for the rest of Northlight’s upcoming season:

• Souvenir :  I’ve been looking for actors who play the piano really well while talking to the audience, and actresses (40+) who are brilliant comedians and can also sing opera, both beautifully and terribly.   I hope that doesn’t sound like either of those roles would be EASY to cast, because neither is.  Talk about daunting.

• Awake and Sing!:  For this one I need actors who are the right ages, ranging from 19 to 60, and have what BJ and I call “chops”.  Chops is what we call it when actors can really access deep emotional work, but make it look easy.  And make it look natural.  And make it believable.  And be able to do it eight times a week.   Most older actors have chops.  It is more difficult to find young people with chops.  Mike Nussbaum totally has chops.  Awake and Sing! director, Amy Morton, has chops ~ so she knows ‘em when she sees ‘em.  We saw about 40 people for the available roles and put another 15 on tape.  Well, actually, we didn’t use tape.   We have this little video camera that captures the audition, and then I plug THE CAMERA into my computer and it uploads the audition and emails it directly to Amy Morton, who is in New York finishing up the run of August: Osage County on Broadway.  Technology is amazing.

• For A Life, BJ and I have been in auditions all week.  One day we saw older actors, the next day we saw younger ones.  In this play, there are two couples who exist in the play sometimes when they are older and sometimes when they are younger.  So we’re going to cast the four older ones first, and then cast the younger ones to look like younger versions of the older actors we cast.  For instance, we can’t cast some kid who is 6′4″ as the younger version of John Mahoney because John is 5′10″!  I’ve been feeling badly for all the young actors who have come in and are really good, but just too tall.

• A few weeks ago I saw a few days’ worth of “general” auditions.  Any Equity actor who was interested could get an appointment to be seen for any of the shows in our season.  And we have called back many of them to read for specific plays!

• During the first week of June, I got together with Casting Directors from Next, Writers, and Piven, and together we held our annual Unified General auditions for non-Equity actors.  We saw 254 actors in 2 days.  We always look forward to this time where we get to talk about casting issues and see a huge pool of Chicago talent.

I gotta run now.  There are two readings (table readings is what BJ calls ‘em) to take another look at a couple of Interplay plays, and I have to cast ‘em!  And I have to call directors Amy Morton and Steve Scott and see how things are progressing for casting Awake and Sing! and Souvenir, respectively.  Actually, I’ll email ‘em.  I love email.  And I have to find a specific song in the key of F for an upcoming audition for Souvenir.  See you at the Theatre!

from Lynn Baber, Artistic Administrator

Yesterday, BJ called me at my desk from the rehearsal room downstairs and asked me to come down to watch the “stumble-through,”which is BJ’s way of saying a “run-through” in the very early stages. So, I was watching rehearsal, and we’re in scene 3 or 4 and he starts meowing.
I gave him a look, but he was intent on meowing, so he didn’t notice all the looks I was shooting his way as he continued meowing intermittently. It turns out that he was putting in the meows where they will be later, when the sound design is in place. If BJ is doing the meowing in rehearsals, apparently, the stage manager will know when and how to call the cues when we get to tech.

It just cracked me up. Not everyone gets to sit next to a meowing boss. It’s not a part of most people’s jobs.
It’s a bonus feature of mine.

from Lynn Baber, Artistic Administrator

There’s this one part of Lieutenant of Inishmore where one of the actors is hung upside down from his feet. The production team is dealing with how to make that magic happen on stage, but we wanted the actor to be able to get used to doing the scene while upside down in rehearsal. That makes sense, right? He has to act, and he’s upside down,

BJ Jones

and he has to do an entire scene. So we got this inversion table, which is actually something used by people who feel they can benefit somehow from being upside down but don’t want to or can’t do it on their own arm strength (like you would in yoga). And BJ, being a conscientious director, felt like he had to try it out first. This photo demonstrates what I saw when I walked into work on Tuesday. I love my job: sometimes you come to work and your boss is upside down and happy about it. BJ liked being upside down. Said it felt good. I will have to take his word for it, because I am NOT going to try it out.